The present invention relates to a photographic printing system in which non-contact type integrated circuit (IC) cards are used to control operations of a printer-processor.
It is well known in the art to use IC cards in order to back up channel data on manufacturers, sensitivities of photographic materials, emulsions or the like stored in photographic printer-processors. In photographic printing system using such IC cards. even though the channel data stored in the printer-processor is erased due to errors which might arise during operation. it is easy to restore the channel data by reading it out from the IC card and rewriting it in a memory of the printer-processor.
The IC cards are used to back up the channel data. Because this data is fixed or standard, the card does not contribute to improving the function or efficiency of printer-processors.
A functional problem associated with the IC cards is that, because an IC card consists of an IC circuit sandwiched between plastic plate and a plurality of parallel contacts formed on the plastic plate. the card is susceptible to static electricity and has limited durability because of wear on the contacts. Before and after the insertion of the IC card in the printer-processor, it invariably is necessary to perform the troublesome operation of shutting off the power supply to the printer-processor in order to protect the data stored in the IC card.
Conventionally. when printing errors occur often, because there are so many possible causes but no detailed record of operation for the printer-processor, it is difficult to ascertain accurately the causes of a printing error when one occurs. As a result, it is very hard to take proper corrective action.
Meanwhile. the printer-processor needs to have appropriate printing conditions defined at the start of its operation. The appropriate printing conditions are entered by using a keyboard. Such printing conditions include channel data as described above, correction ratios for each step of a color correction key and a density correction key, and operation modes of a scanner. Usually, the printer-processor has three operation modes, namely a scanner full-auto mode suitable for beginners, a scanner pre-judge mode suitable for more skilled operators, and a scanner key-adding mode suitable for expert operators.
In the scanner key-adding mode, the operator can manually effect an exposure correction by using correction keys. The scanner pre-judge mode allows the operator to enter image information on, for example, an image contrast of a negative. The printer-processor in the scanner pre-judge mode can determine automatically a proper exposure based on the image information. In the scanner full-auto mode, the printer-processor automatically determines a proper exposure based on an output from the scanner.
These printing conditions and operation modes are selectively set in the printer-processor every time the printer-processor is started. Because the setting of proper printing conditions and a printing mode is troublesome setting errors often are caused.
Additionally, when making extra prints from a negative, it is difficult to set the same printing conditions as those set for the previous printing of the negative.